'Zelda: Breath of the Wild,' A New Kind of Adventure

The land of Hyrule lies in ruin, fallen castles and windows to the past are everywhere. Nature is taking back the world, and a new adventure is underway.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a brand new game for the Nintendo Wii U and Nintendo NX consoles. This game is about moving forward, evolution. It’s about breaking the mold of what Zelda games are and what they can be, and it does so beautifully.

Yesterday, gameplay was shown at Nintendo’s E3 2016 Treehouse Event. We saw Link wake up in a strange cave, walk outside and see the land of Hyrule laid out before him. Not since Ocarina of Time had a game make my jaw drop in this way. A huge, vibrant world was there aching to be explored and as I looked across it I knew this was going to be an adventure like I would not soon forget.

For those of you unfamiliar (Living under a rock, eh?) The Legend of Zelda is a fantasy adventure series first created by Nintendo back in the 80’s for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The games feature interesting characters and settings, fun puzzles, action, and stories of courage and rising to a challenge.

As time went on, the series was starting to become a little stale in terms of how progression was managed. By that I mean, it had become very linear and didn’t offer players any real choice in how their adventure was to unfold. This new title hopes to change that.

Breath of the Wild has a focus of freedom. Everything the player does is up to them, from what dungeons you complete to what order you beat them in. This game is so open that you can go straight to the ending from the beginning of the game, it’s a huge change from previous titles.

One notable change is Link himself. Borrowing from games like The Elder Scrolls, players can now decide what Link wears and what weapons he’ll use. You can have Link swinging an Axe in the buff if that’s what you want. Link also now has a temperature gage that will appear in the bottom right corner of your screen. This shows how cold Link is or how warm he is, which means changing your clothing can mean the difference for how you survive in this game.

Which brings me to my next point: Survival. Every Zelda game has used Hearts for health items, running a little low? Chop some grass and find some hearts, problem solved. In this title though, there are no heart pickups. Instead you need to either hunt for food or find it yourself. Before embarking on a journey, it will be crucial to stock up on food if you want to survive. It adds a bit of danger to the series that we have never seen before.

Next thing I’d like to talk about is how gorgeous this game looks. It doesn’t go in for the ultra-realistic look but instead, a vibrant and colorful world. This graphical choice allows for certain things such as characters or items to stand out and be easier identified by the player instead of just blending into a background. This art style is one that will still look good twenty years from now.

There is a lot of gameplay to check out and a trailer so be sure to look into it. I for one am thoroughly excited and can’t wait to get my hands on it. I’m ready for a new adventure, are you?